Depersonalization disorder and anxiety: A special relationship

Psychiatry Research, 06/15/2012Sierra M et al.

Levels of anxiety did not seem to make specific contributions to the clinical features of depersonalization itself, although depersonalization disorder patients with high anxiety seem characterised by additional non–specific perceptual symptoms.

Methods

Using relevant rating scales, levels of anxiety and depersonalization were assessed in 291 consecutive DPD cases.

‘High’ and ‘low’ depersonalization groups, were compared according to anxiety severity.

Correlation and multivariate regression analyses were also used to assessed the contribution of anxiety to the phenomenology and natural course of depersonalization.

Results

A low but significant association between depersonalization and anxiety (as measured by Beck's Anxiety Inventory) was only apparent in those patients with low intensity depersonalization, but not in those with severe depersonalization.

Levels of anxiety did not seem to make specific contributions to the clinical features of depersonalization itself, although DPD patients with high anxiety seem characterised by additional non-specific perceptual symptoms.